Medical and Health Industry Weekly | "Ruezheng Gene" focuses on the development of gene editing drugs in non-viral vectors; Xianbo Biology completes round A financing of 0.2 billion yuan

In recent years, innovations in the medical and health industry have continued to emerge and have developed into one of the most active industries. 36 Krypton has witnessed and accompanied the growth of innovative companies in this field and brought professional voices to the industry.

To this end, 36 Krypton launched the "Medical and Health Industry Weekly" column, which will be released regularly to provide readers with industry information from multiple perspectives such as capital, policy, finance, and new products.

Please check the weekly report of the medical and health industry on March 16. This weekly report includes last week's financing news in the medical and health sector.

financing investment

• On the premise of opening up the commercial closed loop, "Ruiz Gene" focuses on the development of non-viral vectors in vivo gene editing drugs | Early projects

At the end of 2023, the U.S. FDA approved two CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing therapies in succession, the Casgevy of Futai Pharmaceuticals/CRISPR Therapeutics and the Lyfgenia of Bluebird Bio, both for sickle cell disease. Since then, the era of gene editing therapy as a realistic and tangible treatment, rather than just a kind of "fancy" scientific concept, has finally arrived.

Dr. Wang Yongzhong, who re-started his business and set up a gene editing company, Ruezheng Gene, in 2021, is betting on such an era. At that time, Wang Yongzhong had tried the development of cell therapy, antibody drugs and other types of products one after another in many companies where he worked. He had promoted the first innovative drug in China, Compaq Xipu, which had sales of over 1 billion yuan, to be successfully listed in China and the United States.

Based on nearly 20 years of scientific research, product project operation and CEO management experience, at present, ART 001, an in-vivo gene editing drug for transthyretin amyloid deposition disease (ATTR), has entered the clinical stage of human body and obtained relevant clinical data. In addition, the company has four different stages of gene editing therapy pipeline under development...... (Click here to learn more)

• Yinghui Pharmaceutical Completed Round A1 Financing of Tens of Million Yuan

Suzhou Yinghui Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. successfully completed the A1 round of financing of tens of millions of yuan, with Shengyuan Zhiben's exclusive investment. This round of financing funds will be used for Yinghui Pharma's oncolytic virus product YH01 Phase I clinical study. Suzhou Yinghui currently has 5 products, of which the fastest-progressing YH01 target indication is triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), in vivo and in vitro studies have shown that the product has a subversive efficacy, in clinical Phase I research stage.

• Xianbo Biology Completed Round A Financing of 0.2 billion yuan

Shenzhen Xianbo Biotechnology Co., Ltd. completed the 0.2 billion round A financing, led by Youshan Capital, Yuanhe Origin, Park Road Capital, Guochuang Qinzhi with investment, Haoyue Capital as the financial adviser for this round of financing. Xianbo Bio is a cell therapy biotechnology company in the clinical development stage, the company has a general-purpose NK platform using an innovative design with independent intellectual property rights of the CAR structure, while having a mature and stable large-scale general-purpose NK cell preparation CMC capacity. The first CAR-NK pipeline, SNC103, has achieved positive results in the IIT phase and has entered Phase I clinical.

• Hengyu Biology Completed Round B Financing of Nearly 0.2 billion yuan

Hengyu Biology recently announced the successful completion of round B financing of nearly 0.2 billion yuan, which will be supported by CMB International Capital, Heda Health, Hongcheng Investment, Jinpu Talent Fund, Jiashan Listed Cultivation Fund, Chengshu Investment, and Mr. Zheng Xiaodong, Chairman of Dongfulong. It is reported that this round of funds will be used to further enhance the company's international compliance quality system construction, expand product lines, and accelerate the layout of overseas business.

• Xinyue Biology Completed Round A Financing of Tens of Million Yuan

Shenzhen Xinyue Biotechnology Co., Ltd. announced the completion of round A financing of tens of millions of RMB, with the investors being the old shareholders and Chengcheng Capital. The increase in this continuous investment is not only a recognition of the past performance of Xinyue Bio, but also an expectation of its future development potential. The financing will be used to accelerate the domestic Phase I clinical trials of innovative drug ND-003 projects, the construction of DEL X technology platform (including DEL AI, SMART DEL, DEL PROTACT and DEL molecular probes), and for the preclinical and early clinical development of other projects of the company.

• Keze Yongxin Completed Financing of Tens of Million Yuan

Shanghai Keze Yongxin Biotechnology Co., Ltd., a supplier of small nucleic acid raw materials, announced the completion of tens of millions of yuan in financing. This round of financing is jointly led by Jiale Capital and Guohai Innovation Capital, with Qifeng Capital acting as the sole financial advisor. The financing funds will be used for the research and development of new small nucleic acid delivery systems and the industrialization of small nucleic acid monomer raw materials. Keze Yongxin was founded in 2023, led by the doctoral and postdoctoral team of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. It is a high-tech enterprise focusing on the technical research and development and product production of small nucleic acid core skeleton raw materials.

• Yisheng Micro-Na Completed 45 million Yuan Round A Financing

Wuxi Yisheng Micro-Na Medical Technology Co., Ltd. completed round A financing of 45 million yuan, which was invested by Wuxi Guolian, Qiao Jing Capital and other institutions. Yisheng Micron (InnoSonics) is a high-tech enterprise focusing on the design, development and production of ultrasonic transducers. It mainly produces micro-invasive interventional ultrasonic catheters and transducers, extracorporeal regular imaging probes, ultrasonic scalpel horn, ultrasonic drug delivery devices and other related products.

• Chengdu Newrett Completed Round C Financing Exceeding 0.3 billion Yuan

Chengdu Newrett Medical Technology Co., Ltd. recently announced the completion of round C financing of over 0.3 billion yuan, which is jointly invested by Chengdu Kechuang Investment, Chengdu Biological City Fund, Sichuan Venture Capital, etc. Existing shareholders such as Huaxing Kangping, Xinjun Capital and Star Capital continue to increase their size. This round of funds raised will be used for alpha nuclide research and development, innovative nuclear drug research and development and clinical trials, 30MeV accelerator project construction, etc., to further build a global platform for medical isotope preparation and innovative nuclear drugs.

Overseas New Things

• X-Therma Won US $22.4 million Round B Financing to Develop Cryopreservation Technology for Cells and Organs | Overseas New Things

X-Therma is a California-based biotechnology company that develops regenerative medicine and organ preservation technologies.

On March 13, X-Therma announced the completion of a $22.4 million Series B financing. This round of financing was jointly led by new investor Starling Locke Capital and round A financing lead investor LOREA AG, and other new and old investors also participated in this round of financing. This round of funding enables X-Therma to expand its global commercial operations and advance the development of several key products in its R & D pipeline into clinical research.

X-Therma break through the cold chain technology through the integration of biological preservation platform, to provide safe, in line with the needs of patients with organs, cells and other biological samples and vaccines. The company's solutions can improve critical bio-manufacturing processes, enable safer transportation, and utilize biobank for advanced cell therapy, assisted reproduction, organ transplantation, and other fast-growing areas of regenerative medicine. At this stage, X-Therma company is headquartered in Hercules (Hercules) in the San Francisco Bay Area, and its business in Austria is also expanding. Its technology is expected to achieve a paradigm shift, realize global organ sharing, and eliminate global organ waiting lists...... (Click here to learn more)

• Zephyr AI Completed Round A Financing of US $0.111 billion, AI Precision Medical Technology Supported by Lilly | Overseas New Things

Zephyr AI is a Texas-based healthcare technology company that develops data syndication tools and various machine learning algorithms in oncology and cardiometabolic diseases in an attempt to reshape drug discovery and precision medicine.

On March 13, Zephyr AI announced that it had successfully completed round A financing of US $0.111 billion. Revolution Growth, Eli Lilly and EPIQ Capital Group jointly participated in this round of financing. This round of funding will help Zephyr AI further increase the speed of analysis and strengthen its extensive training and validation datasets. In addition, the funding will support the company in expanding its research and commercial teams to accelerate the delivery of its fast-growing insights to the market.

The Zephyr AI team is comprised of software engineers and biologists who use big data and next-generation technologies to explore new perspectives to improve disease stratification and prediction accuracy, and build lasting partnerships with other businesses to transform the treatment of cancer and cardiometabolic diseases. Zephyr AI is collating comprehensive medical datasets and combining them with AI algorithms to generate novel, transformable insights to build tools and products that support patients and healthcare providers. The company's platform facilitates rapid interpretation and exploration of data, algorithms, and insights through a web-based user interface. The interface can not only meet the needs of external customers, but also promote the development of internal research programs...... (Click here to learn more)

2024 Healthcare Outlook

• Wang Weimin: Capital winter, small nucleic acid drug track against the trend of growth, talent gap is the biggest problem. 2024 medical outlook.

Over the past year, a lot of things have happened on the domestic small nucleic acid drug track. In terms of products, Novartis's PCSK9 inhibitor Inxelan Sodium Injection (Inclisiran) was officially approved, and many small nucleic acid drugs have made positive clinical progress, indicating that the development potential and future commercialization of small nucleic acid drugs are still worth looking forward. From a financing perspective, although the market for the biopharmaceutical industry is still down from 2022, small nucleic acids are showing contrarian growth compared to other tracks, and many of them are concentrated on early projects.

In 2023, there were 31 BD transactions in the global small nucleic acid field, with a disclosed amount exceeding US $8 billion. Roche, Novo Nordisk, GSK and other MNC frequently appeared. The BD deal continues to show that this track is not only favored by capital, but is also getting the attention of big pharmaceutical companies. In the early years, in fact, many MNC entered this field, but due to technical barriers have withdrawn. In recent years, with the breakthrough of small nucleic acid platform technology, many new research directions are also being promoted. For example, chemical modification has made its drug effect very stable, achieving a lasting effect of one injection in half a year or even a year, so that the drug category of small nucleic acid really has a unique advantage in competition with small molecules and macromolecular drugs, especially in the field of chronic diseases...... (Click here to learn more)

• Wang Liqun: If 2.0 products appear, CGT's "winter" will soon end | 2024 Medical Outlook

In 2023, after more than a year of approval window in China, two domestic CAR-T products, reindeer biology and Heyuan biology, have been listed successively. TIL,TCR-T, NK and CAR-NK cells and other types of cell therapies have also entered the clinic.

The obvious trend behind these events is that the direction of cell therapy spreading from simple autologous CAR-T to other types has been formed, which is not only forced by the reality of capital and market volume, but also the necessary course of technological development and the call of clinical demand.

At present, the four autologous CAR-T cell therapies that have been listed in China are priced at 100-1.3 million yuan, which can be collectively referred to as "cell therapy 1.0 era" products. The high cost of self-application determines that no matter how the mode and operation are changed, the impact on commercialization is limited. It is the best result to be able to maintain the current sales volume and slowly attract some patients through gradual price reduction.

Existing ideas, such as domestic equipment replacement, automation, can reduce the price range in a small area. The development and application of these new technologies, such as new demands for cell culture, packaging materials, equipment, etc., also bring more opportunities to the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. For example, the previous mainstream autologous cell therapy has no special requirement on volume, and 100-200 ml bioreactor bag is generally used for preparation, while the reactor will be used for large-scale production after general use, which may only be as large as the existing antibody drug reactor in volume, which is to develop another sales category of different sizes for upstream manufacturers...... (Click here to learn more)